New Website for the Community Newswire

The
new revamped Community Newswire has gone live and has been praised
by Home Office Minister Hazel Blears who was present at the launch.

The website provides voluntary organisations and community
groups the opportunity to get their voices heard in the media. Funded
by the Volunteering and Charitable Giving Unit of the Home Office
the site is a partnership between the Media Trust and The Press
Association.

Hazel Blears, the Labour MP for Salford praised the ground breaking
website saying service was "invaluable" at the launch
of its redesign. The redesign gives a new-look as well as added
search options for people using the site.

Since its launch in June 2004 the Newswire has covered thousands
of stories and organisations, leading to many of them being taken
up by media outlets from national daily newspapers to voluntary-run
radio stations.

Stories are submitted using a form on the Community Newswire website
where they are taken up by a dedicated team of Press Association
reporters. The journalists work with the voluntary groups to transform
the raw material in to media friendly press releases ready to be
posted on the wire.

These
articles are then sent out on PA's regional wires and are freely
available to media organisations throughout England.

Home Office funding means there is no charge for groups to file
stories or photos. There is also no limit on the number of stories
or photos that groups can submit. This allows the Newswire to target
small organisations that normally lack the funding to get themselves
heard in the media.